Archive for April, 2012

When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself. -Native American Wisdom

The council fire etched long shadows on the solemn faces of the men circled around it. Someone had wasted a life, they decided. Someone had killed without reason.

Who was it?, they wondered. How would they find the guilty one?

Finally a woman stepped forward and waited to speak. “My young son lies on his mat, too sick to run and play,” she said. “He has been there since he came upon a fawn in the woods and carried it to our dwelling. The dogs caught its scent. They barked wildly and rushed at him. He was so scared that he threw the young deer in the fire and let it die. What can he do about this wicked thing he has done?” she wondered.

The chief made his way to where the sick boy lay. Slowly and carefully he explained to the child what he must do.

“This night you must leave the campfires and walk alone in the hunting grounds,” he said. “Cry out in a loud voice. Tell this spirit deer you are sorry to have wasted the life of one of his people. Promise never again to break the laws of the forest and field. Then maybe our hunters will again find meat for the stewpots.”

The boy was truly sorry and did as he was told. And so ended the famine!

-Mohave Legend as retold in the book: “Inspiration from Indian Legends, Proverbs and Psalms pp 31-32

One can see from space how the human race has changed the Earth. Nearly all of the available land has been cleared of forest and is now used for agriculture or urban development. The polar icecaps are shrinking and the desert areas are increasing. At night, the Earth is no longer dark, but large areas are lit up. All of this is evidence that human exploitation of the planet is reaching a critical limit. But human demands and expectations are ever-increasing. We cannot continue to pollute the atmosphere, poison the ocean and exhaust the land. There isn’t any more available. -Stephen Hawking

What if we choose to eradicate ourselves from this Earth, by whatever means? The Earth goes nowehere. And in time, it will regenerate, and all the lakes will be pristine. The rivers, the waters, the mountains, everything will be green again. It’ll be peaceful. There may not be people, but the Earth will regenerate. And you know why? – Because the Earth has all the time in the world and we don’t. So I think that’s where we’re at, right now. -Oren Lyons